Tag: Gingerbread

HTC and Verizon had started rolling out the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update for the first ever 4G LTE phone – the Thunderbolt nearly a month ago. However, due to some issues with the Gingerbread build, the update was pulled back.

Now, Verizon and HTC have started rolling out a new Gingerbread update for the handset. The update comes more than 8 months after Gingerbread was announced, and nearly 6 months after the Thunderbolt was released to the public.

The update also contains a new radio which fixes the 4G data stalling issue faced by most Thunderbolt users. The changes brought by the software update are mostly cosmetic, and include a new launcher app, a Download Manager app and much more.

Verizon is already pushing the update to all Thunderbolt owners, and its just a matter of days before it hits your phone. Users can also manually pull the update by going to Settings->About Phone->Software Updates, and selecting the ‘Check for Updates’ option.

If you were under the impression that the MeeGo-powered N9 was staying out of North America to reduce confusion as to Nokia’s future with Windows Phone 7, this might be a bit confusing.

Rumors, pictures and even videos of the Nokia ‘SeaRay’ were circulated less than 24 hours after the N9 was announced. Nokia was adamant and strong in their stance of sticking with Windows Phone 7. It seems many media outlets are too simple to understand that Nokia is a global company. Nevertheless, the N9 will not ship to North America through carriers. Nokia wants to provide a clear and concise offering to customers. Windows Phone 7 is new, it’s fresh and it’s different…except that last bit.

PocketNow has published press shots of a Nokia WP7 phone. The Nokia 800, likely to be unveiled at Nokia World in a few weeks, looks exactly like the aforementioned N9. See the trio of devices above? That is a render of the N9 in Cyan, Black and Blue. What is immediately below? Why that’s the 800…in Cyan and Black. Confused yet?

You’ll notice almost no difference unless you look at the render of the Blue 800. Keep staring, it will come to you eventually.

The inclusion of a camera shutter button is the only immediate thing that separates the N9 from the 800, unless you count the software that actually makes this thing useful. The 800 runs Windows Phone 7 Mango, while the N9 runs MeeGo-Harmattan. Very different software, polar opposites. Very similar hardware, almost the exact same thing. To think, the only reason Nokia has decided to let the N9 fall by the wayside was to not confuse customers? The numbers clearly make sense. N9 – MeeGo = N800 + Mango.

The only thing worse that could happen, is finding out there is some truth to an N9 clone running Android Gingerbread. Actually, scrap that, iOS5 on an N9 would really seal the deal.

Samsung recently announced the new Samsung Stratosphere smartphone. This handset comes with a large 4 inch touchscreen display as well as a slide-out five-row QWERTY keyboard. Samsung Stratosphere runs on the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Operating System. This handset will be exclusively available for the Verizon Wireless customers in the US.

This handset comes with the mobile hotspot capability, which allows you to share your 4G connection with up to 8 WiFi enabled devices or a 3G connection with up to 5 WiFi enabled devices. You can get this handset for $149.99 with a 2 year service agreement and a $50 mail-in rebate. Samsung Stratosphere will be available for purchase from October 13.

Motorola has started sending out press invites for an event being held by them in New York City on October 18th. The tag line of the press event is Faster. Thinner. Smarter. Stronger.

The company has also released a teaser video of the event. Below is the video-:

The teaser video from Motorola also shows a blade/razor, which possibly means that the company will be announcing the leaked Spyder handset, which might be known as the Droid RAZR. Yes, the iconic RAZR brand might after all be making a comeback. The RAZR will possibly be the first phone from any Droid manufacturer to come with a Super AMOLED qHD resolution screen, except for Samsung. The company might also unveil the successor to the Atrix the Atrix 2.

The company might also unveil a bunch of new tablets, possibly a XOOM 2 and the XOOM 2 media edition, with a smaller 7-inch screen.

It will be interesting to see whether how the Droid Razr or any other phone from Motorola stacks against the current king of Droids, the Samsung Galaxy S 2.

Hopefully, the company will also announce some sort of boot loader unlocking tool for its current generation of handsets.

It was more than two months ago, that the CyanogenMod team released CM7.1 beta. Since then, the team has rolling out nightlies daily with new features, bug fixes and many enhancements. But the team did not release or even talk about a stable CM7.1 build.

Today, the CM team has finally released a stable CyanogenMod 7.1 build, based on Android 2.3.7, for a bunch of devices. The new stable build contains some new features like a new lock screen style, support for Bluetooth mouse, FM support in many devices, touch to focus in camera, and an improved DSP Manager. There are lots of other changes as well, which I have not mentioned here.

With the release of CM7.1, the CM team now supports a whopping 68 devices! The stable CM7.1 release adds support for a bunch of new devices. Below is the list of all the new devices supported by CM7.1-:

HTC Desire S

HTC Incredible S

HTC Incredible 2

LG Optimus 2X and T-Mobile G2x

Motorola Backflip (Motus)

Motorola Cliq / Cliq XT

Motorola Defy

Motorola Droid 2

Motorola Droid X

Samsung Captivate

Samsung Fascinate

Samsung Mesmerize

Samsung Showcase

Samsung Vibrant

Samsung Galaxy S

Samsung Galaxy S2 (multiple carriers)

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

ZTE V9

As you can see, the CM7.1 stable build is now also available for Sony Ericsson’s Xperia range of handsets. Thanks to Sony Ericsson’s support, the TeamXperia developers were able to solve the camera issues, and the team managed to release a stable build for these handsets.

Right now CM7.1 for many devices is in beta stage, including the HTC Sensation, LG Optimus 3D and the HP TouchPad. The team will release a stable CM7.1 build for these devices, as and when all the major issues are solved. The full change log for CM7.1 can be found here, and the download link can be found here.

HTC has just announced the Android counter-part of the Windows Phone Mango Powered Titan, the Sensation XE. Unlike the Sensation and the Sensation XE, this Sensation branded phone is not powered by a dual-core processor.

Image Credits - Android Central

The handset sports a massive 4.7-inch screen, with a disappointingly low WVGA(480×800) resolution. Inside, the Sensation XL is powered by a blazing fast 1.5GHz single-core processor from Qualcomm, along with an Adreno 205GPU. The handset also packs 768MB of RAM, along with 16GB of internal memory.

Like the other Sensation-al handsets from the Taiwanese manufacturers, the Sensation XE also has a partial unibody construction. Other key features of the Sensation XL include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS with A-GPS and a 3.5mm audio jack. The usual bunch of sensors are also present. A paltry 1600mAh battery powers the handset, so users should not be too optimist about the battery life of the handset.

At the back of the XL is an 8MP BSI camera, aided by dual-LED flash. This new 8MP lens from HTC provides much better picture quality compared to the camera lens found on the original Sensation, and the Incredible S. There is also a 1.3MP camera in the front for video calling. Sadly, the handset is only capable of recording videos in 720p HD resolution, unlike most other high-end handsets which can record videos in Full HD resolution.

Like the Senation XE, the Sensation XL will also sports the Beats badge. Hopefully, unlike the XE, the XL will actually have some low-level hardware enhancements, instead of just some software tweaks and a Beats branded headset. The handset will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with HTC’s Sense v3.5 UI on top of it. It will also support’s HTC Watch service.

The Sensation XL is slated to be available sometime in November in Europe and Asia Pacific. The company did not mention anything about the pricing of the device.

Frankly, I cannot understand why HTC announced the Sensation XL. It lacks a dual-core processor and a higher-resolution screen.

Last month, Samsung announced the entry-level Android smartphone – the Samsung Galaxy Y. This handset is the company’s cheapest Android phone. Samsung has recently launched this device for the mobile phone users in India. This handset runs on the latest Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Operating System. Until last week, Samsung Galaxy Pop was the company’s cheapest Android phone, but the title has now been transferred to the Samsung Galaxy Y. This handset is specially targeted at the youth in India.

This handset comes with a price tag of Rs.7830, but you can easily get this device for around Rs.7200 in India. Even though, Samsung Galaxy Y offers decent specs and various connectivity options, but it lacks a front-facing camera for video calls. This handset will compete with other entry-level Android phones such as Micromax A70, LG Optimus Me, Motorola Charm, etc, in the Indian market.

LG just announced a new smartphone in South Korea – the LG Optimus LTE. It is the company’s first smartphone which comes with a 4.5 inch True IPS HD (1280×720) display. LG Optimus LTE runs on the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Operating System. This handset will be available for the SK Telecom subscribers in South Korea. LG has also announced a new variant of the LG Optimus LTE, exclusively for the LG U+ subscribers. There are no difference in the specs of these devices, but the design is slightly different.

“LG Optimus LTE is the first smartphone in Korea to offer vivid and clear HD content on a 4G network,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Our goal is to be a leading player in LTE devices by continuously offering best-in-class products based on our LTE patents and know-how.”

LG Optimus LTE Specs:

4.5 inch True HD IPS display

1280 x 720 pixels resolution

1.5 GHz dual-core processor

Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS

8 megapixel rear camera

LED flash

1.3 megapixel front-facing camera

3.5mm headset jack

Stereo FM Radio

1 GB RAM

4 GB internal memory

32 GB expandable memory

microSD card slot

16 GB card bundled

GPS with A-GPS

HDMI

DLNA capabilities

1830 mAh battery

This handset measures 132.9 x 67.9 x 10.4 mm and weighs 135 grams. LG Optimus LTE is expected to release before the end of October in South Korea. The handset comes with a price tag of 899,800 won (approx. $750). We’re not sure, if LG will sell this device in other countries. Let’s hope for the best!

HTC announced the successor to the original Desire, the Desire S at MWC this year. Compared to the predecessor, the S sports a faster CPU and GPU, along with more RAM and internal memory. When announced, the handset ran Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with Sense v2.1.

Now, it looks like HTC have started rolling out a new software update for the Desire S, which bumps the Android OS version to 2.3.5. The update also brings the latest version of Sense UI to the Desire S, which is quite surprising. The Sense v3.0 UI sports some nifty features like a lock screen with shortcuts, new animations and an updated launcher.

The update also brings some new widgets including Clock, Weather and Photo grid widgets, the latest version of Android Market, Calendar app and new Live Wallpapers. Post the update; Desire S owners can also use HTC’s Watch service. Users are also reporting a massive improvement in GPS performance.

It will be interesting to see how the new version of Sense affects the performance of the phone. The Sense 3.0 UI was considered to be a major culprit for all the lags and slowdowns on the dual-core powered HTC Sensation.

HTC recently launched the much-awaited HTC Explorer at an event in New Delhi, India. The press shots and specs of this device was already leaked a week ago. This device was earlier called as the HTC Pico. It runs on the latest Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) Operating System. The global announcement of HTC Explorer was made by the company’s newly appointed president of global sales and marketing, Jason Mackenzie.

HTC Explorer is an easy-to-use smartphone that puts the customer in control, providing quick access to their most important content and information,said Jason Mackenzie, president of global sales and marketing, HTC Corporation. HTC Explorer is simply a smarter phone for anyone and it represents another clear demonstration of HTC’s global commitment to expanding the market for advanced smartphones.

HTC Explorer will be available with a range of optional back covers including Metallic Blue, Metallic Orange, Metallic White and Metallic Purple. This handset allows you to access more than 250,000 apps from the Android Market. HTC Explorer comes with a price-tag of Rs.11,650 (approx.$240). This handset will be released next month in India, followed by other countries in Europe and Asia.